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Thursday, November 24, 2016

Global
Citizen is a social action platform for a global generation that wants to solve
the world’s biggest challenges. It is a community of people that help fight
extreme poverty and inequality around the world, and support approaches that
make life more sustainable for the people and the planet.

They are
working together to achieve specific and tangible outcomes. They are working on
issues like Girls and Women, Health, Education, Finance and Innovation, Food
and Hunger, Water and Sanitation, and Environment.

Objective:

The Global
Citizen aims to raise the consciousness of a generation to start taking responsibilities
for the sake of better sustainable future of planet. It promotes its ideology
through different entertainment portals of this generation like the musical
entertainment at Global Citizen Festival.

International
music act Coldplay whose concert was in Mumbai on 19 November 2016, was a part
of The Global Citizen Festival India 2016.

The Global
Citizen Festival India is an action-rewarded, awareness-driven free music
festival where fans and influencers engage with causes to win tickets. It is a
celebration of change, where leaders, artists, and youth come together with the
common goal of eradicating extreme poverty.

The concert result

By
the end of 2019, all Maharashtra citizens will have safe access to water and sanitation,
the chief minister said on Saturday.

All
of the girls and women of Mumbai will be provided with safe menstrual hygiene
by the end of 2019, according to a commitment made by Poonam Mahajan, an MP
representing the city.

Viacom,
one of the partners of the Global Citizen Festival India, committed to
installing sanitation facilities at 77 open defecation spots in Mumbai by the
end of 2019.

ConnectEd
Technologies committed to bringing smart classrooms to 25,000 more students by
the end of next year, and BMC said it would provide digital education through
tablet computers to 350 government schools and 30,000 students.

Ratan
Tata pledged Rs 300 crore for water sanitation in Maharashtra on behalf of the
Tata Trust, at the concert.

While all
these initiatives will definitely help our country, it will be interesting to
see how the leaders of the country put words to action to these incredible steps
in partnering with this new youth movement to help make India clean and safe
for all citizens. Now is the time for them to take action.

Monday, October 24, 2016

Recently in an interview former Olympic gold medalists Abinav Bindra remarked, "I'd follow Team India's performances, but have stopped doing so after Sachin called it a day... He was different, definitely, a cut above the rest," For once the focus in Indian sports seems to be shifting from cricket, ever since Sachin's, Saurav's, Dravid's retired, the Indian sports audience seemed to look for new alternatives. With new sporting hero coming up in every other sport.This week saw Indian sporting fraternity achieve new heights, while some were historical, some were regulars, while one was a game against arch rivals. We all know Indian cricket team has won the third one day International against New Zealand and that the heroes were Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, probably one of the few reasons Cricket still has huge followers in India. But there were few others that were worth the news.

1. Indian Kabbadi team wins World Cup beating Iran 38-28

India won an unprecedented third successive Kabaddi World Cup title defeating Iran 38-28 in the final. After suffering a shocking defeat to South Korea in the tournament opener, the Indians came back strongly winning all their games to the final. In the final, there was little slip up at half time, when India were trailing by 5 points, but came back stronger to win the game.

2. Bengaluru FC creates history to become first Indian club in the AFC CUP finals

For Indian football, Sunil Chhetri's two goal burst ensured Bengaluru FC script history by becoming the first Indian football club to reach this far till the final of AFC Cup, Asia's equivalent of UEFA Europa League. What was more heartening to see was, the game got support from all corners of the country from celebrities, sports ministries, Athletes etc. Rival clubs too came out in support of Bengaluru's FC's asian venture with age old legacy clubs Mohan Bagan FC and East Bengal FC issuing club statements regarding thier support.The game itself had a good quality football as the Indian champions managed to defeat the defending champions Johor Darul Tazimfrom Malaysia 3-1(4-2 Aggregate). The Match was witnessed by more than 21000 fans who came down to the game to witness history.

Although It was just a group stage match, a game against arch rival Pakistan is always meant to be won. And after trailing 2-1 at one point, Indian team came strongly to win the game 3-2, as they moved to the second spot on the Table below only to host Malaysia. India are still unbeaten in the league and looks like they would qualify for the semifinal and being one of the top ranked team in the competition, they maybe even expected to win.

As the final of Hockey result are awaited so is the final of Bengaluru FC's game in the AFC cup. A win at both the ventures will surely open up more doors for Indian sports enthusiasts to enter.

Over the last few decades, Cricket was one reason when the entire country stood together, Now its changing, the support this games garnered has ensured the other Indian Sports fraternity as a new opportunity to rise up, with the Bengaluru FC's game against JDT, India's Kabbadi world Cup Victory and the victory over Pakistan becoming the top trending topics in the country.

It's Time Indian sports media start mentioning other sporting achievements in their news channel. While the Kabbadi world cup victory and Indian Hockey's victory against arch rivals is getting coverage by mainstream media, its time Football and others get the same mentioning too.

Share your opinions on what do you think about the Indian sports present situation.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Every beginnings has come from something that's ended. Life will have difficulties but you will get opportunities every now and then, a time to sit back and live the moment and you will realize, it's not that bad and you can start afresh.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

A company in Turkey called Pugedon
has created a vending machine that takes bottles deposited for recycling and
dispenses food for the city’s stray dogs.

Inventor Engin Girgin believes that it’s a somewhat bizarre
but effective way to kill two birds with one stone. Pugedon Company created the
vending machine that feeds stray animals in return for people recycling bottles.
The machine works because the profit from the recycled bottles covers the cost
of the dog food that the machine dispenses while also being Eco-friendly as it
works on solar power

The station has two insertion holes, one for plastic
bottles, metal soda cans and carton containers and one for the water which the
plastic bottles may contain. When a plastic bottle or can is dropped into the
hole the unit releases some food to the feeding container below, while the
water that is poured down the separate hole goes directly to a container below
for the animals to drink.

Istanbul is known for its high number of stray dogs – some
estimates say that there are as many as 150,000. Some locals love having the
dogs around, who have adjusted so well to city life that they stop at traffic
lights and walkways, but others want to get rid of them because of their
aggression and their role as disease vectors. There were fears among residents
that these food boxes may lead to parts of the city being flocked with packs of
hungry dogs, but that has not been the case, as all dogs have their own
territory, which they do not leave for any long time, even for food.

While it is one way of getting rid of garbage, there are
certain concerns that come with it. Over here in India the same machine can
make wonders. Vending machine that takes in garbage and gives out food for
homeless people, this way we can get our city cleaned to a certain extent and
feed the homeless in the same side of coin. Although there is a chance of the
same unruly lazy homeless people breaking in the whole machine for more food.
If could be supervised can help in not just cleaning the city or feeding the
hunger but also providing a certain level of work to the homeless.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

How would you feel if something you had worked really hard has
been held back just so that the institution could make some money through it. Recently,
through a Right To Information (RTI) application, It came to light that the University
of Mumbai made Rs 7.52crore in fees to re-evaluate answer sheets and Rs 41lakh
making photocopies of the answer sheets in the last three years. According to the
authorities from MU, the amount is high because the number of students who
apply for re-evaluation every semester is also high. It must be understood that
re-evaluation or asking for Photocopies by the student is not done by the
students as a luxury but because there are doubts whether the paper was checked
correctly.

Numbers that matters

RTI revealed that the university made Rs 2.67 crore between
April 2013 and March 2014 for the re-evaluation of answer sheets and Rs 15.63
lakh for photocopies of the answer books. In the next two academic sessions,
the re-evaluation fees stood Rs 4.8 crore and Rs 25.3 lakh for photocopies.
Mumbai University charges Rs 100 per subject for photocopies of answer booklet
and Rs 500 per subject for review.

Sometimes there are very thin differences

According to Mumbai University Officials, “Since 2010, two
sessions of examinations are conducted every year, and MU conducts more than
426 examinations, with 2.5-3 lakh students appearing for examinations in each
term. These numbers will obviously show up in the fee collected, but that
doesn’t mean we are cheating students.”

Despite whatever the numbers showing up, there should be something to improve the standards of correcting papers

Other Universities
also charges students

Mumbai University is not the only educational institution that
has a dubious earning from re-evaluation. Recently, a reply to RTI revealed
that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is also not following the
RTI norms. Students who intend to verify their marks would have to pay a fee of
Rs. 300. Also, to obtain a copy of the answer book, an additional fee of Rs.
700 would have to be paid.

A landmark ruling of the Supreme Court of India in 2011, states
that evaluated Answer-sheets of candidates is Information under Right to
Information Act, 2005. But CBSE doesn’t follow the Supreme Court’s ruling and
according to CBSE students who intend to verify their marks would have to pay a
fee of Rs. 300. Also, to obtain a copy of the answer book, an additional fee of
Rs. 700 would have to be paid.

Two law students, Kumar Shanu and Paras Jain, have filed a
Contempt Petition against Chairman of CBSE before the Supreme Court of India.

There are enough pressures already

There are already
added responsibilities of Exams and their result, but giving doubts on results
is just another pressure for students. Once a student decides to send a paper
for revaluation or photocopy it means another long wait for the final result
neglecting the facts that there are lots of form fillings for the process. Even
after the result of recheck if there are any mistakes that are corrected, the
students are put into another race of filling forms, chasing university in
order to get their updated mark sheets. There should be check in this issue,
the expenditure of education is high for a lot of students, ruining someone’s
future due to miscalculations or poor evaluations is an offence maybe unintended
but then charging students for correcting someone else mistake is in a way a money
looting method through legal terms. It should be also noted that despite the
Supreme Court verdict that asking for re-evaluation and photocopy comes under Right
to Information, Universities are not following that rule.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Its easy to criticize sitting from a comforting home chair and judging players without acknowledging their hard work behind it, Famous Columnist and Author, Shobha de tweeted a pathetic tweet about the Indian Olympic team and as expected started getting trolled.
She tweeted,“Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity,”

While former Olympic Gold medalists Abhinav Bindra tweeted back politely, Shuttlers Kashyap and Jwala Gutta and actress Gul panag didn't take it lightly

Kashyap termed the tweet 'Stupidity not deserving a reply from Bindra'

Jwala Gutta questioned the attitude

Even the common public trolled the author,

Although the author seemed to repair her mistake with another tweet supporting Abhinav Bindra

by calling him the Dependable, champion and the only hope, it just irked the people even more. The damaged was already done after the previous tweet.

While the trolling continues, the Indian olympic teams journey has been topsy turphy so far. While it has been a heartbreaking loss for Women's archery, Indian Hockey team and Abhinav Bindra, with one losing the game in quarterfinal by shootouts. other with 3 seconds to go and latter one just finishing outside the top 3, there has been some encouraging performance in other games. Earning a point after 36 years in Women's hockey, First Indian Gymnast to qualify for the finals, Indian Olympic contingent has managed to get some positives. With Wrestling, Boxing, Gymnasts, Badmintion and some Hockey still to come, the chances of improving previous medal tally is still on.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Tata Tea Kanan Devan has launched a new venture, 'The photography Escapades - For the Love of Chai', for the lovers of both Tea and Photography. A competition were the participants have to send in their 3 best clicks, along with a Caption and a story behind the click. 18th July being the last day I came to know about it today when a causal surfing in twitter I found it trending. So Digging up my photo albums of the various trips, I have sent in my 3 best clicks with a backstory consisting of a simple Chai behind it.

1. A game on foots

During a monastery visit of my Sikkim Trip, while enjoying a cup of Tea across the lawn, I saw bunch of young monks playing with a cloth ball . smiling all along they spoke less but enjoyed more a moment for this click and a moment to enjoy with a Tea. after a while we joined along too for few minutes.

2.A routine during long journeys

Every long distance journey has 3 things in common for me, A camera, a good book and a cup of Chai. This was taken during my Chandigarh trip, the early morning cold weather carries a different experience for tea along with giving me a foggy view outside but cool pic for the cam. I so feel sorry for the Non-Tea drinkers, They would never know what they miss.

3. Even Trees follow a queue

During one of the breaks for tea, had this beautiful tea garden across the road on view, where these trees were grown in a straight line as if they are following a queue.

Rules are pretty simple send in your 3 best clicks alongside a good caption and a backstory to it regarding tea, Also you get to show your other Photography talent by sharing your other works from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Website and other such links

The winner of this competition could win a trip to click and sip Kanan Devan's glory for 4 Days 3 nights to Munnar, Kanan Devan hills, Kerala. For Participation visit today at Kanan Devan Tea

Saturday, July 16, 2016

In the biggest match of his Professional Boxing career, Vijender Singh came up with his seventh victory to lift the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title in the process becoming the first Indian to do so. It is for the first time that Vijender had to fight till the 10th round, as all his previous 6 victory has finished with a knockout inside 5-6 rounds, highlighting the fact that his opponent Kerry Hope this time gave him run for his money. And score line suggested the same 98-92 98-92 100-90

Singh Vs Hope

This historic match had enough fire power in the audience with around 10,000 people in the stadium rooting and shouting for every move Vijender did, even if he missed his blows or dodged some the crowd didn't stop. Among the audiences were B-town celebrities, Politicians, Cricketers

With the huge expectations and pressure around him Vijender started strongly putting up a good even fight and took charge in the final couple of rounds trying to come up with that one decisive blow to settle the game. In the end it was blows traded through the ten rounds that mattered and by the unanimous judges decision, Vijender won.

Knockout Ka King had to run for his money this time.

This is definitely the best answer he could have given to his critics who had once questioned his decision to join Professional boxing. The ones who had questioned his dedication for his country may have got their answers too, when after the match he said, "Thank you India, Thank you so much, It is all about the nation, our country, finally we did it."

He was supposed to be the Boxing Icon of India, the one who would revolutionize the game in this cricket crazy nation. Well with today's game he has surely ignited some spark among some budding boxers in our country.

Monday, July 11, 2016

About a Month back Momondo a travel site came up with a beautiful video, where a group of people from different backgrounds like race, countries, etc. were brought together for a DNA test. The video starts with people giving their opinions about what they feel about others or themselves and then asking them to take a DNA test. The result of the test constitute the second part, which has some shocking revelations and moments of the participants about how and what they feel after learning a part about themselves from the DNA result. This video through the magic of DNA testing is a commendable effort to prove the world that we are more alike than different.

The DNA Journey

A must watch video with a message that's sure to at least make you start thinking about it. Although the video from the travel site Momondo is trying to portray a message, there are reports that have questioned the authenticity of video with scientist claiming that there is no Standard to say a persons blood is 100% Indian or Danish or American, so how can you come up with percentages. Also some of the reports say that the people involved as participants in the video are actually bunch of actors.

So whether they are fake reactions or scripted, is that the question to be asked?

So it could all be fake, just acting, the reports done by the Travel site for its vested Interests. But is that the point that we are suppose to take from this video, the question we are supposed to ask. No! In the world filled with violence's all over and blame games actively running with it, the moment of realization is what could make us understand that we are all same. A moment to think that, Its the same red blood and that we are supposed to live like humans and not any Jew or Christian, Hindu or Muslim, they are religions meant to improve the meaning of our life, not destroy it.

Its your decision to join or not. But Understand the question it gives

Around 20 years back, Krantiveer was released with Nana patekar as the protagonists giving few of the best Dialogue performances ever on silver screen. One such moment includes him questioning a riot stricken person about his integrity, asking him the difference between bloods to describe religion. It had the similar message, about similar we are, and how we get triggered to fight one another because of few unwanted elements of society. watch it and relive the moment of the videos. And take a moment to think about it.

Friday, July 8, 2016

There are some facts about India that almost every one recognizes or are known to everyone. But they are some we still don't know, Some that we could we proud of. Here are 10 of many Facts of our Incredible India, that we probably didn't knew.

1. Earlier known as Moksha Patamu, the game was initially invented as a moral lesson about karma to be taught to children. It was later commercialized and has become one of the most popular board games in the world.

2. Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas has been voting since 2004 and during every election since then, a special polling booth is set up exclusively for him as he is the only voter from Banej in Gir forest.

3. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked the first Indian in space, Rakesh Sharma, about how India looked from space. His response was our famous patriotic song, "Saare Jahaan Se Achcha."

4. Shakuntla Devi was given this title after she demonstrated the calculation of two 13 digit numbers: 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 which were picked at random. She answered correctly within 28 seconds

5. The first rocket was so light and small that it was transported on a bicycle to the Thumba Launching Station in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

6. Indian housewives hold 11% of the World's Gold. That is more than the reserves of the U.S., IMF, Switzerland and Germany put together.

7. Buttons were first used in Mohenjo-daro for ornamental purpose rather than for fastening. They were first used in the Indus Valley Civilization by 2000 BCE.

8. The Fibonacci numbers were first described by Virahanka, Gopala and Hemachandra as an outgrowth of earlier writings by Pingala

9. Indians were pioneers in Plastic Surgery. It was carried out in India as early as 2000 BCE.

10. It was initially used as a head massage oil for the Nawabs of Bengal during the Mughal Empire around 1762. It evolved into shampoo over the years.

Friday, July 1, 2016

As the season 6 of Game of thrones has ended, creating with it enough fan theories, mystery and thrills to last till next year. There were moments that became a sources for many memes for the fans to enjoy.